Vintage Plastic

Peanut Bowl Set

One of the things I look for when I'm thrifting is vintage plastic. Not the old gummy or flimsy stuff, but well designed, sturdy, quality plastic. Some of the coolest plastics you will ever see are from the Space Age era of design. Some names to look for:  Ira, Heller, Kartell, Panton, Rosti, Copco, Deka, Texas Ware, Melemac and Melamine.

moderncraze

If I had this turquoise flower melamine tray from the 60's I would hang it on the wall. So cute, so simple, so well designed!

thisnext

These egg cups are so cute! If I had these I'd have to make eggs just to put in them!

Some vintage plastics I recently found at Goodwill and an estate sale.

Some more of my plastic, I like modern serving utensils, the colors and designs are fun.

moderncraze

Here's a really modern pair of salad servers - love it!

Luigi Colani Ice Bucket

Vintage Georges Briard ice bucket, I found this at Goodwill.

Rosti Mepal Danish Flower Plates

Some of my vintage plastics I only use in the summer. Their bright colors and fun casual style seem to lend to the outdoors. I like the way they look on my picnic table. (Sorry, wish I had a pic, example below from a previous post on Heller.) 

Heller Plastic Dinnerware

Retro Chalet

Russell Wright Residential Melmac

When searching for images to show in this post, (other than my own), I came across Jo Je Bin's Photostream on Flickr. He has an extensive collection of vintage plastics, lives in Zurich, Sweden and his amazing finds come from thrifting! I am so jealous!


To go to a very groovy site (yeah, baby!) about Space Age Plastic, visit Plastiphile, it's a trip!

These vintage wall clock from the 60's and 70's are as much in style today as they were 40-50 years ago. Jo Je Bin has the makers listed as Wanduhren, Krups and Jura.


So there you have it. Or some of it. It's just the tip of the plastic iceberg. I didn't even show any plastic furniture.


Better save that for another post.

Vintage Bamboo

Some things I collect slowly over time, as I find them at bargain prices at thrift stores, estate sales, etcetera. One of the things I collect this way is vintage bamboo silverware. Right now I have a fairly small collection, but I know if I want to complete it, I can go to eBay or etsy to do so.

This is my collection so far, some utensils, napkin rings, nut cracker, two

boxes and some sort of holder. I would like to greatly increase the number of utensils I have and get more napkin rings.

Chinoiserie Chic

Here's a better view of what the flatware/silverware can look like.

thisnext

I like these bamboo place card holders, though honestly, I have never used a place card holder in my life! But since they're made of bamboo...

brown turtleneck sweater

Isn't this a lovely table setting? The green looks really nice with the bamboo and planter of succulents really adds a nice touch.

Haus and Home

Another lovely table setting. Again the greens, flowers and what I think is a nice touch for texture are the jute place mats and covered planters.

The High Heeled Hostess

If the bamboo cutlery is not your cup of joe, look how nice this bamboo place mat looks against other elements in this photo.

What kind of cutlery/silverware do you collect? Do you have an item you are collecting slowly over time?

Ode to Yellow

This is my ode to yellow,

a bright and cheery fellow,

Who seems to say hello,

Would you like some lemon jello? 

                                 - j.casey

Pardon my foray into poetry, I must have had too much coffee this morning. Actually, I'm going to add it to my other little ditties for a children's book that I would like to write and illustrate some day. 

Lately I'm very attracted to things that are yellow, it's such a cheerful color. And don't we all need a little more cheerful in our lives? Here are a few yellow things that I have thrifted recently.

I really like this yellow Hoover electric fry pan. It's in great condition and the pan is made out of heavy duty stainless steel. Paid $6 at an estate sale.

I found this Dansk pitcher and I assuming Dansk coasters at a garage sale for $1. The coasters don't have a mark on them, but they perfectly match. 

Even though I already have a lemon squeezer or two, I couldn't resist this Semco one that I found at Goodwill for $1.99. 

This giant yellow paper clip wasn't thrifted, but I did buy it at T.J. Maxx, so it

was discounted. It's made of iron, so it will last longer than I will. A pop of color for my work space.

These shallow yellow bowls marked Genuine Melamine, were .39 each at Goodwill. They're a good size for portion control. (right...)

moderncraze

This Panton Era Conran Crayonne Ice Bucket, tray and glasses would be soo nice to have. I don't see things like this when I'm thrifting, wish I would.

What's your favorite color lately?


This post is linked to:


Coastal Charm

Liebster Blog Award

Ruth from Dian's Timpanalley has nominated me for the Liebster Blog award. This award is given to  to up coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, .....

How lovely - Thanks Ruth!

The rules for the Liebster Award are:

1.  Thank the giver and link back to her/him

2.  Reveal your top picks and leave a comment on their blog.

3.  Copy and Paste the award on your blog.

4.  Have faith that your followers will spread the love too!

My picks for the Liebster Blog award are:

1. A La Modern           2. lucy violet vintage          3. Mod2Mod

Fixing Scratched Plastic Planters, Idea #1

I was at a thrift sale this summer and bought a box full of mod plastic planters.
They were all dirty, but for $3 - what the heck -decided I could wash them and took them home. After washing I found that most of them were pretty scratched up. Sigh. When will I learn? I decided to find a way to salvage them because a) I like mod plastic planters and b) I had nothing to lose. So I came up with a few ideas to salvage them and here is idea #1.

Planter in it's before state. Pretty sad. Scratches were enhanced by my camera, it actually didn't look quite this bad.

Sad planter with Contact Brand Adhesive Cork 

I measured the diameter of the pot and the bottom saucer piece. Then I measured how wide I wanted it. I used a ruler and made a line because the lines skip where there is text on the liner side of the contact paper. I wanted to make sure I cut it as straight as possible. This pot was 28" in diameter and I added about an inch to that to make sure I didn't run out. Since this pot was so scratched I wanted to mostly cover it up with just a little brown showing. 

I needed a 4" x 28" length (plus my extra 1") and cut out a piece that was 4" x 29" for the pot. I cut a 1" x 29" piece for the saucer.

I found it helpful to get the saucer off the table while I was working on it and put it on top of a plastic container, since this was a large planter.

The saucer part went really well (see below). But the pot part didn't. While I thought the pot was straight up and down, it had a slight angle to it and so the diameter was at least a 1/2" wider at the top. When I tried to put the cork on it wouldn't lay flat.

So, onto plan B - Working with smaller pieces! I took my big piece that I had cut out and cut it into strips that were 1/2", 1'1/2" and 3" wide. I worked out a simple pattern for the stripes.

I decided it was a good idea to have a straight line to start on. So I took a ruler, held it next to the planter, making sure it was resting solid on it's end and then used a marker to draw a line on the pot. If I really wanted to be precise I could have used a level, but the basement was too far and c'mon, I'm winging it here.

When I put the pieces on I angled them in just slightly towards the bottom and it made up for the difference in diameter.

Ta Da! It worked!

The cork was easy to work with and fun. It has a lot of potential for other projects. My advice in using it is to have a sharp scissors and cut a little more slowly.

I planted a cute little Norfolk Pine in it that has plenty of room to grow.

So I guess it's true, sometimes when you get lemons, you need to make lemonade. In this case, I think that happened twice!

This post is linked to:

House of Grace

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia